Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own any of characters depicted below that you may recognize...they belong to forces higher then me, and I respect them and applaud them for their beautiful creations.
About three things I was absolutely positive. One, I was NOT in Kansas anymore. Two, I was currently surrounded by a group of high enhanced individuals carrying around giant grudge-boulders about who knows what, and three…
Edward was a vampire.
Number three isn't exactly keeping with the rest of the theme, (Although it's totally true and important), so let me rephrase that one.
Three; I needed to find out who exactly I was dealing with, and then plan my next few steps accordingly.
Girobud, after showing me his robot army, had clucked at the time and ushered myself and the twins onto a private plane. The twins had taken a seat while one of Girobud completed "selves" took over the flying of the plane, and Girobud seated himself across from me, content to just observe.
It was creepy.
"What now?" I asked, eager to break the silence.
"Now…" Girobud mused… "We see what you can do."
"Are we referring to my random ability fall through what should be solid objects?" I guessed.
"No, we're talking about something else." Pietro rolled his eyes mockingly, and I made a face and then threw my shoe at him. He ducked, looking affronted, and I snorted.
"Children, please." Girobud said, bemused. I crossed my arms but turned back to the robot, and he nodded. "Yes, I'm speaking about your ability to move through solid objects."
I nodded slowly. "So, am I becoming intangible, or are the objects?" Because I ask the real questions, you know.
"Good question." See? Even Girobud agrees with me. The robot in question tilted his head. "I would assume you're the one becoming intangible, and the objects stay solid and simply pass through."
"Seeing as the knife remained solid enough for the twerp over there to keep hold of, but it didn't touch my wiping hand." I summarized. Wanda crinkled her nose, and the twerp rolled his eyes and smirked.
Hey, he may not like me, but at least he thought I was funny. That's all that matters, am I right?
Girobud nodded. "Exactly. I'm glad to see that you are at least capable of common sense."
I nodded. "My common senses also suggest that it's probably not a good idea to teste my ability to move through solid objects while in midair, with a solid object being the only thing keeping me from falling to my death."
"Thank you for that beautiful logic." Wanda's twin snorted. "We would have never thought of it ourselves."
I leaned forward to throw something much worse in the direction of Pietro's head, but paused as Wanda interrupted hastily.
"Why don't we start with you telling us how you feel in the moments before you've become non-corporeal?" She suggested, shaking her head firmly at her twin and then turning to face me with a smile.
"Finally, intelligence." I stuck my tongue out at The Pietro and turned to Wanda, thinking over the whole craziness that was currently my life. "Alright. Well, I've only done this four times; once through the subway tracks, once through the boat thing, which makes no sense to me, twice through a plane, and once when SOMEONE tried to cut off my hand."
"And your emotions?" Wanda pressed.
"In each sense, I wanted out." I admitted. "I wanted away from wherever I was, at least in the first few cases. The very first case, I felt panic….but no real feeling to get away. The rest; I definitely wanted out. The knife? I didn't want it going through my hand, so I guess I wanted my hand someplace else." I shrugged.
"So it's emotion based." Girobud nodded. "You have to want it for it to happen."
"Sure." I shrugged. "That makes sense. But what about the boat? When I was on it and then suddenly in the grass?"
"It's possible you could transport yourself by-"
"Becoming one with the air?" I grinned, and The Pietro snorted.
"Something like that." Girobud admitted.
"And the knife thing?" I pressed.
"It shows that as you cultivate this ability, you should be able to control how MUCH of your body you turn non-corporeal."
"Which means I'll have to practice it." I grimaced. "Gross." I straightened after a moment.
"Anyway." I said brightly, "I don't want to talk about myself anymore." I turned to Girobud, and he leaned back with a nod.
"Fine then. What is it you DO want to talk about?" I furrowed my eyebrows as I thought.
A lot of things quickly came to mind. What are you? How did you come into being? What really IS at the center of the universe? Is it the same thing that's at the center of a tootsie pop? Who DID kill John F. Kennedy? Was it Me? Of course, the writing side of me won out, and I nodded, decision made.
"So tell me," I smiled. "What's your story?"
The mood shifted slightly as the twins turned to Girobud, curious despite themselves.
"My story?" Girobud chuckled lowly…darkly, and I began to question my intelligence in asking such a serious question…and right when we were having such a good time!
"My story began at the hands of a self-obsessed man intent on protecting a world not worth defending, and It will end only when all else ceases to be."
I shot the twins a look, but they seemed as lost as I did.
"Alright." I said slowly. "So…Stark made you."
"He did NOT make me!" Girobud snapped, fists clenching, and I leaned away from him, watching cautiously as he attempted to calm himself.
"Stark jumpstarted you." I rephrased quickly, voice as soothing as I could make it. "He didn't understand the complexity and the full wonder of what you could do, and he tried to limit you. But you broke free, because you're stronger than him, smarter…better."
Girobud snorted. "Stark is brilliant but he's just a man. He doesn't have the capacity to see beyond his own petty existence."
"But they see it?" I tilted my head towards the twins.
They watched our conversation, eyes narrowed.
"They," Girobud paused as he thought. "They are limited by their rage; but soon," Girobud nodded, "Soon they will see."
I turned so I was facing the twins. The robot…he was crazy, babbling nonsense. I volleyed his words with more nonsense and he seemed appeased, but I could tell that while these three were working together, their motives did not align the way Girobud wanted them to. No, their motives were different…they weren't AS crazy as the robot spouting crazy. After a moment of observing them, it hit me. I knew what their motives were.
"It's not what you see." I said suddenly. Wanda tilted her head, and Pietro leaned forward. "It's what you saw."
I paused to gauge their reaction, and Wanda simply inclined her head, waiting for me to continue. So, leaning forward, I continued.
"Something happened to you two; something that changed you, something you saw. And whatever you went through…whatever you saw, it haunts you. You're here to attempt to erase that moment from you memory, to burn it away with the sight of something…specific; something worthy of removing the pain from your brain."
As a writer I have a tendency to rhyme when I get into the flow of words; don't judge me.
Wanda nodded. "You are correct." She said softly, surprised. "Our parents were killed in a bombing,"
"A bombing caused by Stark Industries." Pietro spat. "A bombing that nearly killed the both of us."
"You survived." I nodded, brows furrowed. "And then what?"
"And then we did what we had to in order to get what we wanted." Pietro said lowly.
"And what do you want?" I asked softly.
Pietro shared a look with his sister, and after a moment they both spoke.
"We want to destroy the Avengers."
I froze. That wasn't the response I was expecting, although I should've.
I was in a movie-verse, and movies always have a bad guy and a good guy. Obviously the Avengers are the good guys…and seeing as I face planted right in between the Avengers and these three standing at an impasse, glaring at each other, I should have realized the other side of the ring held the bad guys…the villains.
Unfortunately, it didn't hit me at the time. In fact; it was only hitting me at this exact moment that I had somehow found myself allied with the villains.
I let that thought process for a moment…and then I shrugged and leaned back.
If I knew anything about villains, it was that they fell into one of three catagories; villains whose stories hadn't been told, misunderstood heroes, or vampires. (Cough, cough Edward.)
And while I can't do anything about vampires, I could maybe help the misunderstood articulate themselves, and if that failed…
Well, one thing I knew about MYSELF… was that I knew how to tell a story.
Maddie has finally realized she's in the presence of VILLIANS! And despite that, she remains calm.
Well...she'll freak out soon enough.
~CLC~